ECU student leadership focus of BB&T Center grants

Marilyn Sheerer, interim provost and vice chancellor academic and student affairs, and James Bearden, director of ECU’s BB&T Center at ECU, selected programs from proposals submitted by seven of ECU’s colleges and schools.

“These programs will provide significant leadership development for ECU students,” Sheerer said. “I believe the leadership initiatives and programs proposed have the potential for advancing the leadership theme articulated for ECU.”

Programs that received funding are: College of Health and Human Performance’s Centennial Leadership Forum; the Brody School of Medicine’s Medical Student Leadership Program; the College of Education’s BB&T Leadership Academy; a summer leadership institute for the International Council for Fine Arts Deans. ECU’s College of Business will bring several leadership consultants to work with faculty members as they continue to develop a new leadership and professional development curriculum initiative.

The Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences will combine provide a leadership training program for students, using faculty members as facilitators. The College of Nursing, combined with grant funding from the Robert Wood Johnson and Pitt Memorial Foundations, will continue to provide leadership research and opportunities for advanced nursing degrees through the newly created East Carolina Center for Nursing Leadership.

The quality and depth of the programs, Sheerer said, demonstrates that leadership development continues to be a part of the strategy and vision of East Carolina.

“I sense a growing recognition throughout the campus that the leadership dimension incorporated into our strategic planning is both appropriate and vital,” she said.